The Weirdest Stress Reducer Ever (That Totally Works)

You can totally picture it: You left an important report at home, spilled coffee on your keyboard, found out that your assistant completely messed up your meeting schedule (making you at least 15 minutes late to everything), and have
over 200 unread emails
sitting in your inbox.

It goes without saying that you’re in need of
a stress reducer
ASAP. But you can’t leave the office in the middle of everything to get a massage or do some meditation, so what can you do?

It’s simple: Put your thumb in your mouth and blow on it.

Yes, you heard me right. And yes, there’s science to prove this helps.

As reported by Lifehacker
, blocking your air passage with your thumb then exhaling activates your vagus nerve, which is spread throughout your body. Research shows that
stimulating your vagus nerve
can decrease your heart rate and blood pressure, making you feel more relaxed. Who knew a little unconventional science could do the trick?

Of course, you may not have the privacy in your cube or
a meeting
to put your thumb in your mouth without drawing attention to yourself (and you definitely don’t want the CEO to think you’re sucking your thumb), so here’s an easy, related trick: Just blow cool air on your thumb.

Dr. Arun Ghosh, a doctor from Spire Liverpool Hospital,
explains that cooling off your thumb can help reduce stress
quickly because the thumb has its own pulse. Much like you try to calm your heart rate after exercise, calming the pulse in your thumb may be able to help you feel more relaxed overall. (Even better, just the act of taking deep breaths to blow cool air can cause you to slow your heart rate and ease your tension.)

So, take a deep breath for seven seconds, hold it for three seconds, blow on your thumb for seven seconds, and then repeat. Feeling a little better? Give us a thumbs up if so.

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Lily Herman is a New York-based writer and editor. In recent months, her work has been featured in Teen Vogue, Glamour, Refinery29, Cosmopolitan, TIME, Newsweek, Fast Company, and Mashable. You can check out her website, LinkedIn, and Twitter.